by Gayle Katz
“Talk to her. Find out what she and Malik are up to. The sooner the better.”
“I will. Are you going to be OK?”
“I think so. Besides, I’m coming with you.”
Ben tries smiling. I guess he wants to comfort and let me know that everything is going to be OK, but, coming from him, it’s still creepy. He charges off and storms down the hallway, stopping only once to take in the lifeless zombie corpses strewn on the floor. I follow closely behind, trying not to get underfoot.
***
Only a few minutes pass before the Professor and I return to the cells. Brie and Malik are still together talking when we enter. Ben is quite tall and he towers over all of us. He’s certainly got the intimidation factor on his side.
They stop their scheming and turn their attention to Ben.
“What now?” Malik complains. “We still have work to do.”
Ben ignores him and walks directly up to Brie. “What’s going on?”
“W-What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean. Jane just told me you two have other plans for the cure and her clones, and that you sent zombies after her to shut her up. So, I’ll ask again. What’s going on?”
Sounding defensive, Brie says, “I don’t know what she told you, but it isn’t true. Once we have a viable cure, we’re going to release it to the world, just as we agreed. See? No problem.”
“And the zombies?” he asks, pointing to my neck.
“Oh my! That was… an accident. And they weren’t a real threat. I put them down,” she continues.
“Ben, that may be what she’s telling you now, but I swear that’s not what they said when you weren’t in the room. They said they’re going to hold onto the cure until more people die. And they’re going to make it happen faster by infecting them with my clones,” I insist.
“No. No, that’s not right,” she says, looking back at Malik.
Ben snaps his fingers. “Hey! Don’t look at him. Look at me. We had a deal. Find the cure so we can help heal mankind and then live happily ever after. Why are you trying to undermine that?”
“We’re not. We’re…” Brie’s voice trails off as she looks back at Malik again, who shakes his head.
“Yes? I’m over here. Keep going.”
“Ben, listen to me. We have a chance to not just cure the zombie plague, but to reshape the world.”
“Brie! Stop talking!” Malik commands.
“Shush. He’ll understand. I know he will,” she responds to Malik. Without missing a beat, she turns back to the Professor, “Ben, we can make the world better than it was before. No more overpopulation. Imagine no more hunger. No more lack of resources. Can’t you see how that would make things better?”
“No. What I do see, however, is how you’ve been corrupted. We don’t have the right to shape the world. Our duty is to cure and heal. That’s all. Holding back a viable cure from innocent people around the world until *you* deem it necessary to release it according to your biased timetable is criminal. I’m so disappointed in you, Brie. We can’t put anymore lives in jeopardy. Not yours or mine. Not Jane’s. Not anyone’s. Do you understand? We’re better than this. You’re better than this. We need to help the world heal, not cause more needless pain and suffering.”
“But-“
“But nothing. Stop this nonsense right now and let’s get back on track.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you? How can I believe anything you say now after you just lied to my face?”
“You can, Ben. I promise.”
“What about him?” Ben points to Malik. “Can he be trusted?”
“I’ll talk to him. Make him come around.”
He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “I guess I have no choice. No one else knows the cure as intimately as you two. If I lock you two up or let the zombies have you, it hurts everyone.”
“Give us one more chance, Ben. Please. Please!” Brie begs.
His face cleared of concern, he settles in with his new normal disposition. “How is your final experiment coming along? Is she still recovering and recuperating?”
“She’s doing well. I think we’re there. Like I said, just give us a few more hours to see about side effects.”
“If it looks like it’s working, give Jane a shot now. Getting bit is still a death sentence.”
“Ben!” I shout, flabbergasted that he’s giving them another chance. “No! You can’t trust them!”
Brie pulls a clear plastic package from her drawer and unlocks the medical cabinet behind her. She pulls out a small clear bottle, places it on her desk, and tears open the package to reveal a syringe. Sticking the needle into the top of the small bottle, she pulls back on the plunger and sucks up liquid. She pulls the syringe out of the bottle and walks toward me.
I step backwards and put up my hands to keep her away. “I don’t know what’s in that bottle. It could be the cure. It could be poison. It could be anything. I don’t need to have another accident.”
“Jane, a zombie bit you. For the safety of everyone in the lab, either you take the shot or we put you back into a cell for observation,” Ben says.
“But you said you wouldn’t do that!”
“I know, but circumstances have changed. We want to make sure you don’t turn. It’s for your own good.”
Against my better judgement, I hold out my arm and stare Brie down. “If this isn’t the cure and I start to turn or worse, I’m going to find you and you won’t like what I do.”
She breaks my stare and carefully slips the needle into my arm, pushing down on the plunger. Stepping back, she puts the needle back into its package and drops it into an orange hazardous waste basket. As she turns around, my vision starts to get blurry. Soon, I see two of her and begin to get overheated. I look over at Ben and there are two of him as well.
“I don’t… I don’t feel so good,” I mumble.
I try to get to the wall in order to lean against it and stabilize my body, but I collapse face first onto the cold, lab floor. Seconds later, someone flips me over and I see the Professor’s face above me.
“It’ll beeeeee OOOOK,” he says to me. “Yoooooooou’re goooooooooing to be OOOOOK.”
The last thing I hear is someone whispering into my ear, “Jaaaane? Jaaaaane? Can yooooou hear meeee?”
When I open my eyes, I’m in a throng of Jane zombie clones walking through a city. Some of us are pushing our way into buildings, and others keep going down the main drag. I look down at my hands and arms and see gray skin. Trying to speak, no words come out of my mouth. When I do manage to say something, it sounds garbled, like gibberish. Wait. That’s my stomach. I’m starving. I look up and see people running from me. Seemingly out of instinct, I start running after them. If I run faster, maybe I can catch up with one of them.
Running as fast as my legs can carry me, I manage to catch up to an older man with some heft to him. Close enough, I jump onto his back and knock him down to the ground. I can feel him trying to escape from beneath me, but I don’t let him. I bite his neck while he screams in pain. Swallowing chunks of his flesh whole, I go back for seconds, and he continues to howl. I don’t want to share my food, so I bang his head against the ground until I see red. Soon, he stops yelling and his body goes limp.
Almost ready to get up and hunt for my second course, someone kicks me in the head and knocks me down. I turn around to pounce and I’m face to face with a double-barrel rifle. Moments later, I hear a loud bang and flinch awake, still on the floor of the lab.
“Ahhh!” I shout and sit up. “W-What happened? Why am I lying on the floor?”
“You passed out,” Brie says.
“Passed out?”
“Yes, probably from the injection. It has some side effects, but it seems to do the job. How do you feel? Dizzy? Nauseated?” asks Ben.
“Definitely dizzy, but I’m starting to feel better. Give me a minute, and help me up off of the floor.”
“Are you sur
e? If you’re still dizzy, the floor may be the best place for you until you’re one hundred percent.”
“Are you kidding me? With everything floating around in my body, I’ll never be one hundred percent. I may not even live through this nightmare. Help me up,” I reach up for another hand to grab.
“Well, you’re not unconscious anymore, so that’s certainly a step in the right direction,” Brie says.
“Are you well enough to continue on?” Ben asks, extending his hand to help me get back on my feet.
“Sure. Yeah. I think so.” I grab his hand. My whole body is sore.
“So, your experiments?” Ben asks Brie.
“Yes, she’s almost completed cured,” Brie answers his question.
“Let’s see how she’s doing in person. Shall we?” Ben says as he walks over to Malik, grabs him by the scruff of the neck, and drags him with us.
As we walk over to the Jane clone experiment, she stands up and walks over to us, feeling the bars that separate her from us.
“Where am I? What’s going on?” she asks.
“You were sick. We healed you,” Ben says.
“You?” she says, slinking away from the bars, recognizing the Professor.
“She seems healthy to me. Keep her for observation and make sure she doesn’t relapse.”
“If these clones are real people as you say, then have some more compassion for her. She’s afraid. Can’t anyone see that?” I ask, looking at the group. Walking up to the bars, I reach through them and hold out my hand. “Don’t be scared,” I say to my clone.
She inches closer, takes my hand, and smiles. We watch as the others argue.
“You called me a clone. Who am I a clone of?”
“Me.”
“You?”
“Yeah. We look like identical twins. Crazy, huh?”
“I guess it’s like having a sister.”
“Yeah, I guess you could look at it like that. I like that.”
“They said I was sick. What’s wrong with me?”
“You were… uhhh… turning… into a zombie.”
“A zombie? Never mind, I don’t want to know anymore. But, I’m better now?”
“According to those people yelling at each other over there, yeah.”
“This is just the beginning,” Ben smiles. “The cure will reunite families, bring loved ones together, keep the fabric of humanity intact, and heal the world. Can you see now how holding the cure is wrong? We’re not criminals and we shouldn’t be acting that way. Inject the first subject with the cure and see if she responds. If they’re both OK in the morning, we alert the authorities and release the cure immediately. Do you understand?”
Brie stares at him.
“I’m waiting. Are you with me?”
“Yes.”
“No. She isn't,” Malik says in rebuttal. “Come on, Brie. Don’t throw it away now. He’s just trying to bully you.”
“No one is talking to you. You work for us. Can’t you see? You don’t get a say, at least not in this.”
“I’m not not going to stand here while you decide the fate of the planet. The problem of overpopulation isn’t just a cliche, it’s real and it’s too widespread to ignore. Can’t *you* see? Overpopulation contributes to the depletion of natural resources, like fresh air and water, useable land and fossil fuels. And it doesn’t stop there. When we overuse these resources to provide for so many people, we pollute and contaminate the environment with more carbon dioxide, more greenhouse gases, and more climate change. One country can’t make a dent in this global epidemic, but if the world were to change, maybe, just maybe we can make things better for those who survive. This is our chance. Don’t blow it.”
“And you think you’re the one to make these decisions? Don’t make me laugh.”
“You can’t treat me like this. You’re going to be sorry.”
“Brie, get him in line… NOW!”
“She might agree with you now just so you don’t throw us in the brig, but she’s with me on this one, Professor.”
“Shhh,” Brie says to Malik. She then turns back to Ben. “I’ll talk to him. Don’t worry. He’ll see what we’re trying to do. I promise.”
The Professor looks deep into Brie’s eyes before walking out of the lab. I follow behind.
“That’s it? That’s your idea of fixing the problem?”
“Brie will get him to come around.”
“How do you know that? Neither of them seem very trustworthy.”
“She’s a very persuasive person when she wants to be.”
“Huh?”
The Professor stops midway down the hall, extends his left arm, and shows me a gold band encircling his ring finger. “See that?”
“Yeah? It looks like a wedding band.”
“It’s not just a wedding band. It’s a symbol. A commitment of trust and love between two people.”
“Uhhh. Yeah, but I didn’t know you’re married. And who exactly are you married to?”
“Brie.”
“Brie? But how? And why?”
“Well, let’s get the details straight, OK? Technically, I’m a clone of the Professor, not the actual Professor. He was married to her. Apparently the ring came along with my remains. Even though it wasn’t my decision to marry her, I thought it would buoy her spirits if I wore it, give her incentive to work faster. Even though I have memories of being married to her, they’re not my memories. Honestly, it feels like it was a million years ago.”
“So being married to her, how does that inform you on what she’s going to do now? She’s been through a lot. We all have. She may not even be the same person she was back then. I know I’m not.”
“I know her. And I know she’ll do the right thing.”
”But…”
“But nothing. Don’t worry about her. You still want to get home to Jack, right?”
“Of course I do.”
“Worry about that instead. We still need to get you there,” Ben says, walking away.
As the conversation ends and Ben walks away, I stop in my tracks. I hope she’s going to do the right thing. If not, the world is in for a lot of hurt.
I watch him get smaller as he continues down the hallway. Standing there, I notice Brie coming down the same hallway. I step to the side and allow her to pass without saying a word. She glares at me briefly, and then picks up speed, rushing down the corridor away from me. Did she already set Malik straight? That was fast. Is she following Ben?
As she fades into the distance, my curiosity is piqued. I go down the same hallway, making sure to trail far enough behind so they don’t notice me. My journey takes me down to Ben’s quarters. I peek around the corner and spy Brie and Ben talking, quickly looking around, and then embracing for a moment.
“Did you talk with him?” Ben asks.
“Yeah,” Brie replies.
“You sure?”
“Yes.” She clears her throat.
“You don’t seem sure.”
“I am. Malik won’t be a problem. I promise.”
“I hope NOT. We already have so many hurdles to jump through. We don’t need another one.”
“You don’t think I know that?”
“I know you do.”
The conversation stops, but they’re still standing together in the corridor. Ben breaks the short silence. “So besides convincing me that Malik will do his job, is there another reason you’re here?”
“Yes. Right. Sorry. Here’s the current research from Malik. You know, on the subjects. See their cellular structures?” Brie whips out some documents and points to them. “If you compare the before and after images of subject Jane clone number three’s cells, you can see her white blood count has come back to relatively normal levels and she has more healthy-looking red blood cells now. That’s from all of the treatments we’ve been giving her.”
“That all looks good. When were these latest samples taken?”
“This morning.”
“Let’s do i
t again tomorrow morning and see if we’re still heading in the same direction, OK?”
“Sure. We can do that.”
“Does Malik know you’re sharing this information with me? The truth now. Think before you answer.”
“Of course he does.” She clears her throat again.
Ben gives her a disapproving look. “Come on. So now we’re spying on him? I don’t like that one bit.”
“I thought this would help show you he’s on our side. He’s the one using genetic editors inside of the cure delivery system to keep people from turning.”
“That may be so, but I still don’t trust him. People don’t abandon their radical views so easily, at least that’s been my experience. He may look and sound like he’s changed, but keep an eye on him. We can’t afford to fail when we need to focus on helping and healing people around the world.”
“He’ll do the job he was hired and paid to do. We won’t fail. I promise.”
“I hope so,” Ben says, looking more closely at her. “Are you OK? You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine, just a little stressed out, as you can imagine.”
Chapter 10
________________________________________
Lying on the comfy couch in the Professor’s office again, I stare at the ceiling, hoping that tomorrow both of the remaining clones demonstrate that the cure works. I couldn’t believe it was so difficult for me to leave my frightened clone, but she needs more rest to recuperate. And I need to get some sleep, too, with the cure in me now. I’m anxious about what’s going to happen tomorrow. If there is a viable cure, that means I get to go home and see Jack, and I can’t wait another second.
“Jane?” I hear the Vulture in my ear. “Are you up? Are you alone?”
“Yes on both accounts.”
“What happened to you back there?
“Ugh. Malik ambushed me and I got bit by one of their zombies.”
“Malik? I don’t know why they continue to work with him. He can’t be trusted. Are you all right? Are you…”
“Turning into a zombie? No, not yet. I’m fine, I think. As a precaution, they decided to inject me with their newest concoction. One they think is the cure.”